Dystopia IV: Countdown
Dystopia IV: Countdown 'is the fourth saga of Dystopia timeline. Its name comes from Paradox, the phenomenon which Marudeux and Adocimicoda can access to a degree, which is going to bring impending doom and rebirth of the world. Story ''Continued from Dystopia III: Pasts. Dystopia begins in the aftermath of the destruction of the Black Tower. Micoda arrives to the site. The Dark Leyline, a powerful force, has been revealed to have flown under the tower. This confirms it being the mysterious power which Shadowguide used to defeat Micoda before. Surprisingly, the goddess Khalmotep appears to purify it. Yet what happens is a portal opens, and Micoda gets dragged to face the entity that masterminded Shadowguide's actions. It introduces itself as ruler of time and alchemy, Khair Algon, and fights with the power of space-time manipulation. However, Micoda accesses the power of Paradox, which he knows to be a risk, but destroys Khair Algon with it anyway after becoming the superior user of space-time. As he returns from the time-space, he re-unites with Al-Cados and ponders what to do next. He decides to give the influence of Khalmotep to Al-Cados, who has discovered that the true meaning of the influence is manipulation of the memories, and it is performed by something called Spirit of Khalmotep. They find out by logically deducing that an enemy is still lurking in the shadow of Revolution Realm, inside the World Seal Chamber. In a mystifying encounter, Al-Cados, Revo, Micoda and Lutir face a cursespawned monster called Cursed Zenith, the remnant of the curse of the Titans. It blasts Al-Cados and Lutir away from the battle, giving others (and the Spirit of Khalmotep inside Al-Cados) the impression that the two of them died. However, Micoda again unleashes the risky option of becoming Adocimicoda and defeats Cursed Zenith with Revo providing backup and preventing the monster's self-destruction. Meanwhile Arcagus has travelled to meet Ferengeil, whom he knew as a small fox. The Magician has other plans and uses him as emotional fuel for Ferengeil by killing him, and sets up an epic duel for the two of them, as Ferengeil gains a new power, Infernal Fox Mode. The fight is inconclusive, as The Magician leaves. Ferengeil enters Infernal Pit by force and recruits two new people. He bestows them with Curse of the Infernal One. They are the axe-wielding Robert Baramov and a monk whom he gives the name Brimstone. They return and recruit two more allies whom both he wishes to be his "hands", the gladiator community's Casper LeMarr and Nagash of 17 Eyes. Just as he is satisfied, a bomb detonates inside Robert Baramov, knocking Ferengeil out for the moment. The Magician rushes in and attacks them with his servants, but the desire of vengeance for Arcagus allows him to strike powerfully to scare his enemy away, and The Magician and his allies, Blood Waher and Devos the Ritualist retreated. Ferengeil felt the presence of the enemy disappear towards Lanexa. The appearance of another man, an unknown ally near The Magician caused him to uncharacteristically shudder, and he decided to tend to the wounds of his critically wounded allies. While Micoda and Al-Cados planned to use the Proof of Liberation they collected from Cursed Zenith to unleash a Reverse Dark Tide with Infinite Legion's reluctant help, they were unaware of a sinister plot. The Magician set up to overtake the Reverse Dark Tide project for his own, unknown ends. Four beings appeared, creating a barrier around the pyramid. He warned that while he was clearly ''"the villain"''', he was not the man who would fight In doing so, he had the powerful unknown associate of his fight Micoda. The Spirit of Khalmotep left him in the middle of the combat for no apparent reason, as the man turned out to be Samael. Samael had now somehow fallen under some kind of mind control from The Magician, which explained his absence since the liberation of Marudeux. He clashed with Micoda in a high-power exchange of attacks. At the same time, two mysterious but separate entities appeared to confront the threat. One was Planekeeper, a guardian beast from before the Purged Decades. One was a captain from a ship that crashed down from apparently nowhere. Planekeeper and the captain both rushed to help Al-Cados, who was all alone against The Magician and fell. The Magician was about to bring an end to the era by bringing Paradox to reality, and yet Planekeeper was in the nick of time to arrive to fight him. They managed to evade the coming of Paradox by clashing against the boy. Also, Micoda was heavily wounded but did win against Samael. Ferengeil arrived later, having fought a mysterious beast with Brimstone and was delayed because of that. Later, Samael was shown to return to his former self with all his dark equipment and abilities vanishing, only with some unknown black material still remaining in his chakra channels. The captain was confirmed to be Eteris by Seleka. It did not still give them any answers as to where he had come from. The group headed to Revolution Realm where another incident then occurred. They faced Marudeux's ally Atlas the Gatekeeper. The Paradox Gate appeared, looming in the distance. They rushed into the gate, not knowing what to expect. However, inside they found space to battle. Planekeeper and Trinitius fought the Herald of the Paradox himself. In a miraculous fashion, a character appeared from the shadows and intimidated Marudeux. Marudeux unleashed an attack against it, only for it to reveal itself as a energy absorption puppet. It used the energy to take over the control of the Paradox Gate and begin to bring it down. Welkere proclaimed that they would ''"confront in regards to the real master plan and meet at the final battleground, which you already know." In saying so, the Gate collapsed and pushed everyone out, forcing even the incredibly sturdy Planekeeper to finally faint in exhaustion after surviving two perilous battles and a magnetic storm. Melody was finally on the move and had thought of summoning Ferengeil to Dystopia, which she had recognized as crucial to Marudeux's plan despite being unaware of the battle that had been fought at Revolution Realm. In Dystopia, they found Marudeux and his ghastly messenger Siegmund awaiting them. Marudeux wanted to continue where they left off and challenged Samael into a summoning duel and fought using the last of his summons, the powerful Chrocanth. At the same time Siegmund confronted Ferengeil and his subordinates. Yet Chrocanth was destroyed in battle with the traitorous Garthiel, who fell herself. Finally the battle turned into a clash of Marudeux versus Melody and Samael, but Micoda appeared and struck against the Herald. The battle seemed even, but it was unknown if Marudeux was using its full powers. Finally Marudeux revealed a trump card: the Herald's master plan had all along been to gather them here. He would use the battle arena as Bridge of Tomorrow, technically an airship, to bypass the security of Crimson Spiral by flying straight inside it. Yet the aim of the grand scheme was to find suitable people to enter, and Marudeux would test them right there and then. The bridge soared to the sky. The only ones on board were Samael and Micoda, and Marudeux wanted to duel against Samael to decide it for once and for all. Samael pondered his options, as he could probably tap into his full potential for such a deciding duel and summon any kind of creature. He decided to summon forth Sol Paul, but instead the summon's energies were revealed to be inside his own sister, who was summoned instead! "I am sorry, Samael. I did not want you to see me like this", she apologized. Samael did not worry, since he trusted her. He made a drastic call to fuse the three of them together to become Marolos, a cloaked being capable of crushing Marudeux's Paradox-based attacks. Strangely enough, a shadow of someone remained at the end of the bridge. The battle was a brief but powerful exchange of attacks. Marudeux's advantage was gone, as the being that stood in front of it was capable to destroy all Light-based techniques. In fact, Marolos used Life's Flash, a powerful close combat technique, to seemingly eradicate Marudeux. As the last act, Marudeux suddenly rejuvenated and put them at the brink of death, telling that he would still stop them if they did not know who awaited them. Samael answered honestly that he assumed it was Welkere, which was the right answer. The sage Welkere approached, revealing himself to be the shadow at the end of the bridge. He greeted them, telling them that the Bridge of Tomorrow was a move that would absolutely guarantee them the victory if there could ever be one. Continued in Dystopia V: Spiral. Themes * The Magician's numerous plots, which seem to indicate that all he wants is destruction. ** He knew of the Reverse Dark Tide project and manipulated it, attempting to bring the Paradox and the destruction of the world like Marudeux did. In that way, The Magician seemed to operate very similarly to Marudeux. *** However, the most complicating fact of his plots is the attempt to eliminate Ferengeil. Ferengeil seemed to be in no way relevant to the Paradox attempts, other than being someone who had had the Spirit of Khalmotep. *** Samael's role is unclear. Why did he require someone like the young summoner by his side? Was it just to pit him and Micoda against each other? It is unlikely it was just to test his mind control ability, although the results were impressive. **** What was the black material inside Samael's chakra channels? * Paradox, its impending doom and the risk of using Adocimicoda. ** By using Adocimicoda, the Paradox was hastened. However, every single time that Micoda had a difficult encounter, except for fighting Samael, he used it. *** In the end, it did not matter as the power of Sol Paul was intact and protecting the world, although Melody had made the grave sacrifice to shorten her own lifespan to become its vessel. * Marudeux's true goal. ** In the end, Marudeux proved that all his schemes had been for some sort of a greater good. He had wanted the chosen of Khalmotep to grow stronger, and become capable of fighting against the masters of Crimson Spiral. *** His presence at Dystopia had been to observe as conflict and bloodshed would temper the Dream Dust that he had used as the foundation of the arena, and thus allow him to craft the Bridge of Tomorrow. Trivia * There were nine perilous encounters in total, one of which was in three parts. Five of the nine were Omens of Death.